Unilever To Support Critical Areas Of Economy

Unilever Ghana Limited has announced its decision to pay attention to some critical areas of the economy that have the potential to complement the education sector.

The company has, therefore, reviewed its social responsibility strategy. The Chairman of the Unilever Foundation for Education and Development (UFED), Mr Andrew Evans Quayson, announced this at a dinner hosted for editors in Accra.

The foundation, he said, had consequently been renamed Unilever Foundation for Development (UFD). He said the foundation would now focus on five key pillars which include, women’s empowerment, sustainable agriculture, health (with emphasis on malaria prevention and HIV and AIDS, hygiene and nutrition.

Mr Quayson explained that “these pillars have been carefully selected on the basis of their potential to accelerate the growth and development of our country”.

“ Support for the agricultural sector to enable modern, scientific and all-year round farming will only not ensure sufficient food for our consumption but will also save us about the $500 million we spend on rice importation alone annually”, he noted.

He said this huge money can be channelled into the provision of socio-economic infrastructure.

Mr Quayson said, given the pivotal role women played in development of societies, a lot of development would be achieved if women, who constitute 51 per cent of our population, were empowered to undertake viable and sustainable economic activities in the formal and informal sectors.

“With this new focus, the objective of the foundation to contribute to the speedy development of Ghana remains relevant in a more challenging manner.

Also, it aligns Unilever Ghana’s social responsibility policy and agenda to the rest of the Unilever world,” Mr Quayson stated.

He said under the new strategic direction, the foundation’s support would initially cover three of the five pillars. Women empowerment, health and hygiene.

Mr Quayson said with this change in focus, scholarships and bursaries for formal education would be limited to children of employees of Unilever Ghana

He was optimistic that the foundation’s support to these areas, complemented by the other social responsibility activities managed directly by Unilever Ghana under the new strategic direction “ would make the impact we desire on national development”.

In his remarks, the Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, Mr Charles Cofie, stated that despite the economic meltdown, Unilever Ghana had remained resolute in its quest to provide the Ghanaian consumer branded products that added vitality to life at affordable prices.

He said the company continued to make high quality products that were easily accessible and available to consumers by strengthening its distribution system to enable the goods to reach the retailer through fewer middlemen.

Mr Coffee said “ while we continue to strive to meet the expectation of consumers, we fervently look forward to government’s interventions to mitigate, if not reverse the current conditions”.